Signed 1960s 3kg Stromberg facet-cut vase

Many of those who discover the beauty of mid-century art glass are immediately taken with the beauty of facet-cut vases from Murano. The problem with these, from the perspective of collecting, is that because they are still popular, they are still made. That means that there are lots of them around, some of them of inferior quality, and that unwary buyers may be buying something relatively new, rather than the vintage piece they think they are getting. As a general rule, the more facets, the more time and expense in producing the vase, so more modern pieces tend to have fewer cut glass sides.

Unlike the Italian makers, Strombergshyttan from Sweden stopped making 'mid-century' facet-cut glass long ago. They had a serious factory fire in 1973, the business was sold to Orrefors in 1976, and it closed down in 1979 (though the name has been resurrected by a new business).

This piece, in Stromberg's usual ice-blue crystal, has too many facets for us to count. It's very heavy for its height - 14.5cm (5.75 inches) tall but 3.2kg (nearly 7 pounds).  Look at the last picture in particular and you'll see that each facet reflects other facets, giving an outstanding optical effect.  

It has a huge amount of workmanship in it - as with many big, complex pieces, you wouldn't want to make a mistake on the last cut and waste hours or labour.  Although it was a production piece, you can buy it with confidence that, forty-something years later, there are now few others like it.

Height: 14.5 cm (5.75 inches)
Width: 12.5 cm
Weight: 3225 g (!) (nearly 7 pounds)
Engraved "Strombergshyttan B 1172" (?) to the base
Condition: light wear to the base, a 1x3mm and a few less than 0.5mm fleabites to the cut decor

Our Reference: 2708

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